Karen Henken

Professor of Practice, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Kroc School, University of San Diego

Karen Henken is Professor of Practice, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Kroc School, University of San Diego (USD) in San Diego, California. She oversees the new Master of Arts in Social Innovation. In this role, she facilitated the launch of the new master’s program, teaches core courses, serves as faculty advisor to the student cohort and champions regional and global partnerships for the program. Karen has been adjunct faculty in USD’s Graduate School of Business and co-chaired the Kroc School’s advisory board at USD since 2014. She also teaches innovation and entrepreneurship workshops globally with leading universities and NGOs in Colombia, Vietnam and Brazil. Prior to this role, Karen served as Vice President, Business Development at Kountable™. In her role with Kountable, Karen was responsible for developing partnership opportunities with corporations, government organizations, NGOs and influencers across key geographies for the company. Based in San Francisco, Kountable is a technology platform funding medium to large scale projects through trade finance in emerging markets, especially in East Africa, Karen has spent 25+ years as an executive in international sales, marketing and business development. She spent 20 years in Silicon Valley establishing new markets and geographies for some of the highest profile technology companies. She has helped dozens of companies grow their market presence in the US and internationally, facilitating billions of dollars of revenue opportunities. Karen has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Bowdoin College. She speaks Spanish and Japanese.